From: Florida Times

Consumer groups or covert lobbyists?
Groups with names that may mislead flock to telecom debate.

By Rebecca Catalanello, Times Staff Writer
Published March 5, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - More than a half-dozen people flanked Rep. Trey Traviesa as he announced his new legislation: "This is not a phone bill, a cable bill, a local government bill," he said. "It's a coalition endeavor, a consumer endeavor."

For the second straight year, Traviesa, R-Tampa, is pushing a proposal that would more easily allow telephone companies to compete in the cable TV market - changing the way consumers across Florida can get their television, Internet and telephone services.

Traviesa described the folks behind him as "a real variety in terms of a group of supporters, consumer advocates and experts from around the country."

They included well-known Tallahassee consumer advocate Mike Twomey. But also standing in support were representatives from a collection of consumer-named groups: TV4US, Internet Innovation Alliance, Video Access Alliance and the American Consumer Institute. They described the bill as good for consumers because it would increase competition for TV delivery, lower prices and expand access.

What wasn't mentioned is that these groups are financially backed by or tied to telephone companies and other businesses that would most benefit from the bill's passage.

Corporate interests speaking of "consumer" benefits is not new, but as Tallahassee prepares for the return of the intensely fought telecom bill, the arrival of such groups in Florida speaks to a national trend.

With telecommunications bills like Traviesa's on the front burner in many states, there is a proliferation of such groups popping up, said Common Cause media research director Dawn Holian Iype, author of Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, a 2006 report on these and other groups.

Traviesa's bill would allow telecommunications companies to negotiate a single, statewide franchise agreement to deliver television and other broadband services. Cable companies argue that the telecom companies should have to strike individual deals with cities and counties, as they have. Consumers are in the middle.

TV4US and the Internet Innovation Alliance count AT&T among their members. Video Access Alliance, based in Tallahassee, is comprised mainly of independent networks, video programmers and entertainers.

VAA chairman Julia Johnson said the clients of her company, NetCommunications, include AT&T and Verizon.

BellSouth, which merged with AT&T last year, spent at least $1.6-million on Florida lobbyists last year - more than twice as much as any other business.

None of these groups are registered as lobbyists in Florida. Mark Herron, a Tallahassee lawyer who defends companies and lawmakers against ethics complaints, said what these groups are is open to interpretation.

"It's deception," said Brad Ashwell, a consumer advocate with the Florida Public Interest Research Group, a citizen's lobby firm that was unsuccessfully solicited by one of the groups to become a member.

Those fighting against the telecom bill, chiefly cable companies, aren't immune. Broadband Everywhere, which spoke in opposition to Traviesa's legislation during a House council meeting last week, represent cable company trade organizations among others.

"They're being used as a tool to pass legislation," said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, a member-funded nonpartisan political watchdog that has not taken a position on Traviesa's bill. "They're doing it under a false guise."

Traviesa, who calls this "the most important bill I've sponsored as a legislator," said it's no surprise that consumer interests and corporate interests align on this issue. He said he wasn't aware of the links between telecommunications corporations and the coalition groups, but shrugged off criticism as "an opposition-induced detour."

"You can't say all these groups are puppets of industry," he said. "It's just not true."

TV4US began airing television ads in Florida this week, comparing the cable wars to developments in long-distance and cell phone competition. "Remember when long-distance was really expensive?" a voice says as an outdated rotary phone hovers in the middle of the screen. "You remember. Then you got a choice. Now long-distance calls are just pennies a minute."

Kelley Gannon, spokeswoman for TV4US, acknowledges the group's corporate membership helps pay the bills. Members' names are listed on their Web page, as are those for Internet Innovation Alliance.

Employees with CoreMessage, a public relations firm that represents AT&T, passed out TV4US literature during Traviesa's press conference. In that material, the group calls itself "a new Florida-based consumer coalition," one that includes "corporations, non-profit and non-governmental organizations - representing hundreds of thousands of consumers across the country."

On Thursday, TV4US began circulating newspaper inserts that include postage-paid postcards for people to send to their legislators. "I want my TV choice," it reads.

"We're really about helping consumers understand the benefits so that they can in turn talk to their legislators about it," Gannon said.

Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.